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ral , according to their ideas , than expressing complete or violent madness by the possession of seven demons ? The learned note on Luke xiii . 11 , fa woman having a spirit of infir"mity , ) also relating to the same subject , is of a very different character from
that on which we have now remarked , certainly implying disbelief of the reality of possession , and thus leaving us in doubt as to our author ' s real opinion . It shews that the Jews attributed presiding spirits to almost every things especially , that they believed diseases to be inflicted by demons ; and it concludes with the remark , ( from Hardt and Moldenhauer , ) that the Evangelist speaks according to the opinions of his countrymen .
Mr . B . has two annotations relating to the important phrase 6 vih ; r § dvQpcoTrov " the Son of Man , " Matt . viii . 20 , xii . 8 . It is disputed whether this is to be accounted a title of dignity or of humility , and what is the precise idea on which it is founded . Our author takes it as a title of dignity , equivalent with Messiah , and seems to adopt the opinion of Heinsius , Scholten , and Rosenmiiller , that it denotes " him who is said to be the second after Adam ; for in the Jewish writings there is frequent mention of the first and second Adam ; and Jesus was accustomed to signify his dignity thus
obscurely . " But Son of Man , with the Hebrews , was an expression of depreciation , applied to the human race as contrasted with the eternity and perfect holiness of the Deity , and to those in a low and wretched condition as opposed to the great and powerful . No reason can be given for connecting the phrase with any thing which is said in Rabbinical writings of the second Adam . It is observed that the title is applied to our Lord in a prophetic vision of his glory , ( Dan . vii . 13 , ) "I saw in the night visions , and behold one like unto a son of man came with the clouds of heaven and
came unto the Ancient of days . " But surely the meaning here is to mark , that , notwithstanding the great power and dignity which was to be conferred upon him , and the glorious manner of his appearance , the object of the vision was in his personal appearance like to other , and even to very humble , mortals , and made no outward show of the superiority which belonged to him , a circumstance peculiarly applicable to the voluntary humiliation of
our blessed Lord ; so that , even if it be allowed that the title was in part , at least , founded on this passage and conveyed an obscure intimation of Messiahship , it would still express humiliation , not exaltation . Two passages ( Matt . xvi . 13—16 , and xii . 32 ) are often referred to as proving " the Son of Man" to be of the same meaning with " the Christ ; ' ? but the same passages are also generally produced on the opposite side to illustrate the difference between the two phrases , and we think with much more reason . We would
seek then the rationale of the title in the meanness of condition , want and sufferings , voluntarily submitted to by our Lord for the accomplishment of the ends of his mission , which rendered him pre-eminently the humbled and afflicted one . We are satisfied that Jesus employed it as a modest and unpretending way of speaking of himself , and we think its having , with a single exception , been used by none but himself , strongly confirms this view of the subject . If any reference was intended to the passage in Daniel , it was as the most humble , and , at the same time , as an obscure method of
implying his claim to the high dignity which belonged to him . Considering the nature and use of the corresponding Hebrew phrase , we cannot conceive with what propriety this title could have been applied to any but a human being , and the contrivances resorted to for evading this conclusion , though various and perhaps ingenious , have always appeared to us far-fetched and unsatisfactory .
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$ 08 Review . —Bloomjields 'Recensio Synoptica Annotationis Sacra .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/48/
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